Other judges' assistants were also appalled by Birch's firing. They raised money to pay her rent this month.

"If it can happen to one of us, it can happen to any of us," said Donna Vail, who responded to Bowden's e-mail with one of her own. "Chris Birch has been a loyal employee to Judge Bowden ... who has been terminated for strictly health issues and not for her service to her judge."

Birch declined comment Thursday. But she thanked Moran in a handwritten note last week for putting her back on the courthouse payroll in a rotating judicial assistant's position. Birch was paid about $3,275 a month in her old job, and the state paid her health insurance premium. Her new rotating position pays $750 less a month and requires her to pay her own premiums.

"I want to thank you with all my heart for going to bat for me," she wrote.

Birch, who has battled cancer for five years, went on leave Aug. 20. On Dec. 12, Duval County Court Administrator Britt Beasley notified the judges that the Florida Supreme Court had implemented a 60-day hiring freeze effective Dec. 15 because of a budget shortfall.

"Does that mean when I lose Chris I cannot have a JA [judicial assistant] for two months?" Bowden asked Beasley in an e-mail obtained Thursday.

"I regret that your interpretation is correct," Beasley replied. "The alternative would be to terminate Chris on Dec. 14."

But Moran's judicial assistant, Mary Lou Martinson, said she had assigned one of the rotating assistants to Bowden full-time at his request.

On Dec. 13, Bowden wrote a letter to Birch, firing her. He said he was unable to reach her by phone.

"It is apparent to me that you are not able to return to work within a reasonable period of time," he told her. "... Thank you for your conscientious and loyal service. You will always have a special place in my heart."

Moran said he was attending a judicial conference and didn't learn of the decision until Dec. 21, when Birch called him. Bowden said in his e-mail that the chief judge called him "to tell me that he was going to tell everyone he knows 'what a no good son of a bitch you are' after which he hung up the phone."

Moran didn't dispute Bowden's recollection but said he also wished him Merry Christmas.

"It was very upsetting and disappointing to me to see that he would treat another person that works in the system like that," Moran said Thursday. "It was a very cruel thing to do right before the holidays."

Bowden declined comment Thursday beyond the contents of his Dec. 23 e-mail. In it, he said Birch didn't return his calls while on leave and "maintained an optimistic but unrealistic attitude toward her illness." He said he encouraged her to seek involuntary medical disability retirement but she refused.

He said if she died while on the payroll, he would have been without an assistant for two months, "not an ideal situation for a judge."

"I am chagrined but not surprised that Judge Moran has the effrontery to criticize me ... on a matter not within his purview as chief judge," Bowden wrote in the e-mail. "I have no legal or moral obligation to confer with him on the hiring or discharge of my judicial assistant."

Vail said Birch was shocked when she received Bowden's letter but has not indicated a desire to sue. It would be an uphill battle because she appears to have exhausted the maximum amount of time off allowed under family leave laws, said employment lawyers contacted by the Times-Union. They said she might have rights under the Florida Civil Rights Act, but disability cases have become difficult to win under that law.

"She has fought the battle of her life the past five years, for herself, for her children and to come back for Judge Bowden," Vail said. "To lose everything that she's worked for the past 15 years, especially her medical insurance - and not for any wrongdoing - it's unbelievable."